Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) Short Interest Down 6.2% in October

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 21,820,000 shares, a decline of 6.2% from the October 15th total of 23,270,000 shares. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 9,250,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Halliburton Stock Performance

HAL opened at $30.45 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $26.75 billion, a PE ratio of 10.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 1.89. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.12. Halliburton has a fifty-two week low of $27.26 and a fifty-two week high of $41.56.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The oilfield services company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). Halliburton had a return on equity of 28.33% and a net margin of 11.04%. The company had revenue of $5.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.79 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Halliburton will post 3.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Halliburton

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HAL. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Halliburton by 56.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Asset Management LLC now owns 157,085 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $4,563,000 after purchasing an additional 56,707 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in Halliburton by 146.0% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 842,355 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $28,455,000 after acquiring an additional 500,000 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Halliburton by 105.2% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 186,961 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock worth $6,316,000 after purchasing an additional 95,864 shares in the last quarter. Semanteon Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Halliburton during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,181,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Halliburton by 319.0% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 36,956 shares of the oilfield services company’s stock valued at $1,385,000 after acquiring an additional 28,137 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Halliburton from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Halliburton from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Raymond James reduced their target price on Halliburton from $41.00 to $37.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Barclays decreased their target price on Halliburton from $47.00 to $43.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered Halliburton from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $37.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Halliburton presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.74.

About Halliburton

Halliburton Company provides products and services to the energy industry worldwide. It operates through two segments, Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. The Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services that include stimulation and sand control services; cementing services, such as well bonding and casing, and casing equipment; and completion tools that offer downhole solutions and services, including well completion products and services, intelligent well completions, and service tools, as well as liner hanger, sand control, and multilateral systems.